Saturday Night…Dead

I have been known to be too sentimental with some items I own. I had a blue blazer that was one of the most comfortable things I ever wore. It was long past its prime. I wore that thing almost daily till it was threadbare and frayed. Finally one night I saw myself in a video on television and I realized it was time to finally discard my old friend, the blazer.

Lorne Michaels, learn from me, let it go, its time to end Saturday Night Live.

When I was a kid we used to gather at Mario’s in Setauket and other kids and adults would sit on the floor to watch Saturday Night on the big screen TV. You couldn’t get to the bar, if you wanted a booth you got there at about nine p.m. and nursed your pizza and beer until the show was over at 1 a.m., but each week, people sat on the floor to watch SNL.

We all know the routines, Cheeborger, The Wild and Crazy Guys, Weekend Update, the parody commercials. Saturday Night Live is in our DNA and a huge part of our popular culture. In my world, you are not accepted into my pantheon, unless you can impeccably quote Animal House, The Blues Brothers and SNL, but now, the show is impossible to watch and a parody of itself. The skits are painful, there are no stars of note on the show anymore and you cringe watching the cast waiting for the laugh that isn’t coming.

I know, I know, Lorne Michaels has made so many careers and done so many good things with his comedy but it is just heart breaking to watch him inject himself into the opening of just about every show thinking he is funny when he simply looks like the only guy in the room that doesn’t get how unfunny he is. Lorne and the entire Saturday Night Live cast are like an aging Borsht Belt comedian, climbing into a too small powder blue tuxedo, gluing on the toupee one more time to try and get one more laugh from an indifferent audience. Think Brett Farve, think Dick Clark.

Carson knew when to hang it up and he seemed to enjoy himself playing his beloved drums and tennis daily. Mary Tyler Moore, the cast of M*A*S*H, the cast of Cheers, they all exited the stage leaving the audience wanting more, but, Lorne is limping along like the aged star looking for the elusive close-up.

When you create something like Saturday Night Live, and, in essence, you own the franchise you have done something special for the public, but, with that also comes a responsibility…you manage our treasure for us. It is as if you own the New York Yankees, or a Disney cartoon, or the Colonel’s Special recipe, you have the keys to a bit of Americana and so it might be yours but it is so big it belongs to all of us as a touchstone of our culture and our memories of the past.

As a shareholder in the culture of the United States of America I ask you, tear down this wall Mr. Michaels, let each of us that have known and loved Saturday Night Live for what it was at its best not have to cloud pleasant memories with the clumsy, painful product on our screens today.
Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.